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A song I wrote in the throes of post-Calamity mind break syndrome. Major spoilers abound. A parody of the Gorillaz song "Clint Eastwood," because rapping is Calamity's secret vice. (Original music contains explicit lyrics.) I ain't happy, but feeling glad I've got limelight in my hands I've fought this for oh so long This curse just keeps going on I ain't happy, but feeling glad I've got limelight in my hands I've fought this for oh so long This curse just keeps going on And going on And going on And going on... Yes... Finally, someone let you out of your cage Unchained to bring destruction and to shout out your rage I just freed from within All your natural sins How they've clattered in din But they're always what wins Regrettable Perhaps you didn't see so I command you to From my point of view I'm just making your wills tangible. Live and learn Hope and spurn As you raze and burn Toss and turn 'Cause these lessons had to be this stern. Now you lie and claim that hope's for what you yearn As if you could discern You think I'm corrupting you? Nudging you? Maybe. Cyclical The power that's bestowed on you just proves that you're all crazy Mindless You squawk and fuss and gawk at every sunrise Sightless 'Cause it's clear no truth could push into your eyes You like this? You're just beasts that think they're righteous But you're all just spineless Removed from all brightness I ain't happy, but feeling glad I've got limelight in my hands I've fought this for oh so long This curse just keeps going on I ain't happy, but feeling glad I've got limelight in my hands I've fought this for oh so long This curse just keeps going on And going on And going on And going on... The essence of justice Relies on some substance You lack in your numbness Children in your roughness Epics You think they're far removed, that's a fallacy You're in them! Every steel city Every flooded sea Every murder spree I see them with my eyes! All this destruction and demise! Corruption undisguised! While you claim that some are wise And you hit me with your lies Claim that if I'd just left you be some heroes would arise. But fear won't depart. "Calamity's" the name you give for what's in your heart And it tears you apart. That's you, not me So I'll just stick around and be the watcher Throw out some gifts to drown out what you think is solace I brought all this To show you can't survive when you're so far from flawless Meantime all your nightmares might just hightlight your dread Till doomsday just remember that they came from your head. I ain't happy, but feeling glad I've got limelight in my hands I've fought this for oh so long This curse just keeps going on I ain't happy, but feeling glad I've got limelight in my hands I've fought this for oh so long My curse just keeps going on And going on And going on And going on And going on My curse just keeps going on And going on And going on And going on And going on My curse just keeps going on And going on And going on And going on And going on My curse just keeps going on And going on And going on My curse just keeps going on And going on And going on My curse just keeps going on And going on And going on My curse just...

Could Megans abilities be utilized to explore a multiverse that possibly includes the cosmere? Is there a limit to how far Megans abilities can go? I'm just spitballing here. thoughts?

Preface/Opening Rant: Calamity's Epic Downfall Part I: Transfersion and Impedance I got the term "transfersion" from the "Great Transfersion", the event where Steelheart turned almost every non-living thing in Chicago into steel, thus creating Newcago. I define transfersion as any Epic effect that transmutes the nature of things. Each transfersion ability has an attribute. In the case of Steelheart's "Steel Transfersion", the attribute is steel. Early on in the series, Megan and David described a quirk of Steel Transfersion: One might prefer to believe that this quirk has no implication beyond Steelheart. If that's what you think, that's perfectly okay, but you might want to stop reading this post. Anyway, I theorize that this insulation effect applies to other Transfersion-type powers, and is therefore a general rule for Transfersion: Likeness Limit Rule: Things that are similar in nature to a Transfersion's attribute resist transfersion, and things that fully match the attribute block transfersion completely. The Likeness Limit Rule explains why Gifters can't Gift to other Epics. Gifters are Power Transfersers, and the Likeness Limit hinders them from Transfersing powers to people who already have powers. The Likeness Limit Rule also explains why Megan could only pull shadows of alternate worlds when she wasn't at her full capacity. Just as Steelheart found it more difficult to Transferse steel onto non-steel metal, Megan requires more effort to Transferse a core possibility onto her current core possibility, especially if the two core possibilities are close to each other. Ephemeral Possibility Transfersion (a weaker form of the power that only pulls shadows of possibilities) is much easier, so she relied on that for most of the series. Part II: Transfersion and Weakness Suppose Gifter Bob had the power of enhanced strength, and his weakness is the sound of a chihuahua barking. Bob Gifted his super strength to average Joe, and then Bob went off to terrorize some people in another country. Joe, excited about his new power, decided to impress some girls by lifting a 500 kilogram barbell with just one hand. Suddenly, a woman approached, her pet chihuahua barking madly in her bag. According to David's Large Dispersal Rule ("An Epic's weakness has less and less influence on their powers the farther you get from the Epic's presence"), Bob is too far away for his super strength to be affected by that particular chihuahua who's barking at Joe. But what of Joe? Will the power Gifted to him remain? Will it fade away? Will Joe have a sudden urge to kill the dog with the barbell? Does Bob's weakness have any effect on Joe at all? Now let us look at an example from the books. Calamity's weakness can be triggered by someone who conquered their fear in order to save others. A person that Calamity has Gifted experiences this weird compulsive urge to lose all empathy, be utterly selfish, and be absolutely terrified of Epic Downfall every time they use their Gifted power, and this feeling vanishes once they start freeing themselves from their Gifter. Despite Larcener's sneering and self-rationalization, there has to be a connection there. Does this mean that the darkness is part of Gifting in general? Obviously not, otherwise the Reckoners would have felt it when they used Prof's powers. Rather, the darkness was part of Calamity's Gifting. Somehow, the power being Gifted knows its owner's weakness, and fears that weakness. Downfall Avoidance Rule: When a sentient being is Transfersed by an Epic, the power becomes aware of the concept of ownership and will defer to a "true owner" by actively avoiding his weakness. So in the above example, Joe would definitely be affected by the chihuahua. Once I came to that conclusion, it was surprisingly easy to find evidence in support of it, not just from Gifters but also from other Transfersers of humans as well. For example, sneezing allowed David to grow back from being shrunk by Loophole. The shrinking transfersion fled him the moment he manifested Loophole's weakness. Note that Loophole's Downfall is supposed to be triggered by her own sneezing, not anyone else's, but somehow the power was still repulsed by sneezing even when it was from the target of transfersion (i.e. David). In the first book, there were two instances where David unexpectedly couldn't use the tensor powers properly. In both cases, he experienced a moment of failure before using the powers. In the first scene, David must have felt like a failure many times over: In his mind, he failed to bring Megan to safety, failed to hide from Enforcement, and failed to keep intact his only means of escape. Even though he really was capable of using the powers without the gloves, his feeling of failure triggered the Downfall Avoidance Rule, so the powers fled him. In the second scene, his failure to hit the enemy led to Cody being hurt, and then he failed to take down the enemy with his second shot, but this at least distracted the enemy from finishing Cody off. David was able to use the tensor, but there was resistance. The power was close to leaving him. There are still some open questions. I don't know if the Downfall Avoidance Rule had anything to do with the Diggers going crazy, because we don't know what Digzone's weakness was. I also don't know why the rule no longer applied to Megan after she started "owning" her power (perhaps because the power has accepted her as its true owner?). (Update: The open questions above have mostly been answered by a deeper analysis of power ownership, as I discussed here.) Part III: Transfersion and Death When Steelheart died in the first book, we saw that part of his corpse turned to steel: We've only seen a few other "odd" deaths in the series, but all of those had been of Transfersers. This made me think that Prof was onto something, and that this was another general rule that governed all Transfersers: Death Trigger Rule: A Transfersion effect happens at some point after a Transferser's death, unhindered by the Transferser's weakness. The obvious example of this aside from Steelheart is Megan. Her power of Possibility Transfersion pulls the possibility of a living Megan every time she dies, in accordance to the Death Trigger Rule. "Death Trigger" might remind you of Deathpoint, who was a Transferser who could turn people's flesh into ashes. When Deathpoint died, he didn't turn to ash, so that ironically looks like a violation of the Death Trigger Rule at first glance. But remember that Deathpoint had a second ability, the one that he was about to use on Steelheart before Blain Charleston shot him. Perhaps this second ability is the one that manifested when he died. I'm speculating that this ability's attribute is death itself (instead of ash, as in his first ability); think Avada Kedavra from the Harry Potter series. I'm not sure if such a power could have killed Steelheart, but it would mean that Deathpoint's corpse was lethal to touch. Good thing his corpse was Transfersed into harmless steel moments later. How about Gifters? Well, fortunately we've already seen a Gifter die (well, "close enough"). Calamity is the ultimate Gifter, the one who Gifted all of the Epics on David's core possibility. Soon after our heroes returned from defeating Calamity, they learned that Mizzy has become an Epic. How interesting! But I don't think it's likely that Calamity chose to Gift someone just as he was facing opponents (I mean, priorities...). I think Mizzy became an Epic after Calamity was defeated, that Calamity's Gifting power was Death Triggered. And since the Death Trigger effect is immune to the Epic Downfall (since the Epic already...fell), it must also be immune to Downfall Avoidance. This means that anyone Gifted by Calamity's Death Trigger would not have felt the darkness, and would not have experienced the Rending. This is consistent with the ending scene. When Knighthawk informed Megan about Mizzy turning Epic, there was never any indication that Mizzy went on a homicidal rampage, something that Knighthawk wouldn't have forgotten to mention. They didn't seem worried at all about the news. It stands to reason that Mizzy fully owned her powers the moment they were Gifted to her. Edit: Removed weak speculation about Prof and motivators. Reworded some things for clarity.

I just finished Calamity Chapter 35. Was Abraham trying to explain something? I mean was he and Powder a thing pre-Calamity? Or just best friends? What do you think? Just RAFO? I have yet to finish the book today.

Reading the scene in Calamity where David et al showed down with Calamity makes me wonder if Brandon is hinting at how Adonalsium was shattered. Especially this line by Calamity: "I contain the very powers of the universe. Do you understand that? They are all mine. I am what you call a High Epic a thousand times over." I know the shattering will be different from the calamity showdown, and Earth is not part of Cosmere. I just think that there may be many settings in common: The shatterers and later shards of Adonalsium were very highly invested before becoming shards. They may have been invested in different ways and thus had Connections to different facets of Adonalsium's power and was later able to pick up specific Shards. The shattering was mostly because Adonalsium was doing strange things to the highly invested and powerful magic users, or even magic systems themselves. Adonalsium was sent from outside of Cosmere. All the major and minor shardworlds are with stars closely clustered within a dwarf galaxy. It's hard to imagine that only this part of the whole universe has such a magical being as Adonalsium. The God Beyond may not be from the Beyond after all, but from beyond the Cosmere astronomically And I have some further, wilder guesses: The Realms are divided at the shattering. There was only 1 Realm before the shattering, and that's how humans found and slayed Adonalsium. If Adonalsium was in the Spiritual Realm, I don't think people can even be there without shardic powers. Yolen was hidden somewhere outside the Physical Realm, and maybe even within the Spiritual Realm. And that's why someone as cosmere aware and well traveled as Khriss could not find the planet.

I don't know if people have already heard about this but during the Calamity signing Brandon mentioned that there is going to be another series in the Reckonerverse that is currently being called “Apocalypse Guard” and it will take place in the alternate reality that Megan see's in Calamity. Its going to be about a team that travels to parallel universes to prevent world-ending events. The release of the first book is currently planned for between Stormlight​ 3 and 4. I'm super ex​cited for this series!

So I heard that Calamity is being released on February 16th, but I don't know what time. I want to go to the party, but I might not be able to, depending on the time. I think Brandon Sanderson said it would me in the day, instead of midnight, but I don't know specifics. Anyone know?

I have 2 theories about the weakness. 1. His fear is a world completely destroyed by epics. If this is true, to stop Prof the epics have to completely destroy everything. 2. His fear is Tia dying and/or becoming an epic. I have lots of evidence for this. a. In Firefight he only changes the frequency/password to Tia's and his own mobile, because he is "paranoid". b. His friends all became epics. He might be scared that Tia will as well (or has she already?) c. They were dating, people. 'Nuff said. d. He gives Tia the job of staying back and not getting into danger. If this theory is true, Tia has to die or become an epic for the Reckoners to bring back/kill Prof. For more info, check out my Tia theory on the introduce yourself! forum.

EDIT: THIS IS A JOKE THEORY, JUST MADE FOR MY HUMOR! RECKONERS IS NOT COSMERE IN ANY WAY! What if Kelsier is Calamity? Facts 1. Sazed has an extra bit of Ruin. 2. Brandon has been very sly about where this extra bit of Ruin is, and what is doing. 3. The 17th Shard has largely assumed that this extra bit of Ruin has gone to Kelsier. 4. Brandon has also been evasive about Kelsier's whereabouts, repeatedly referring to him being in a dimension unlike what we've seen before. 5. In Shadows of Self, Sazed (also known as Harmony) makes a comment about Kelsier: AssumptionsA. The Reckoners' version of Earth is in the same Universe as the Cosmere planet systems. Further, I would be interested to know if they are in the same dimension, but that would mostly irrelevant to the endpoint of my theory. B. #5 implies that Kelsier is gone from Sazed, or at least removed enough that they are not in direct contact. The Theory Sazed gives Kelsier the extra bit of Ruin. We know that Shardic levels of power give some level of knowledge about the universe beyond simply the physical. So Kelsier somehow does interdimensional travel to Earth. Alternatively, he could have used normal travel, albeit at speeds much greater than light (and this really depends on whether or not the two series are in the same dimension of the universe or not, but as I said earlier, this does not matter hugely to my theory). Keep in mind that even though Kelsier only has a small portion of Ruin's power, Ruin will still be corrupting (<-- interesting word choice, hmm?) him. So Kelsier will have to find some middle ground between being a hero and wanting to Ruin. When Kelsier reaches Earth, he visibly sets up shop as a red star thing (Note that red is a commonly accepted for evil, or ruin, among other things). Of course, as we already know, his influence is directly felt on earth. Since Kelsier/Calamity has come from an utterly different culture, he doesn't fully understand the governmental systems of the different nations, and resolves to fix them as quickly as possible. What better way to do this than mutating certain people on Earth, and giving them powers that corrupt them, and enable them to take over. This is precisely within Ruin's Intent. Of course, Kelsier is ultimately being tricked by Ruin. Kelsier believes that by empowering the people to take down the government, he is improving their chances of ultimately surviving, because that's what he did, in his previous life. Unfortunately, Ruin's insidious influence is blinding him to the fact that really, the Epics are only encouraging the breakdown of society, and the more they use their powers, the more corrupt and Ruinous they become. That's pretty much the theory. I think it fits with what we know now about the Reckoners/Cosmere. I could speculate about what will happen in Calamity, but I'm sure Brandon will surprise us all anyway. Possible Objections Why didn't Kelsier/Calamity give everyone powers, and not just a few people? Not sure. Isn't a bit far-fetched/too-early to speculate on this, since we don't know what the next books in the respective series will hold in terms of plot details? I don't think it's ever too early to make a theory. Questions I plan to make a list of questions to flesh out my theory a little more, and if I could get some help asking these (Brandon rarely comes to my area), that would bebutterly fantasmic. I'll try to be as specific as possible to avoid the possibility of RAFOs. 1. Is Kelsier Calamity? (Quite direct, and would probably get RAFOd, but 'ey, it's worth a try.) 2. Does Calamity have some Shardic Influence (Note that this has previously been answered as "No" when asked if Calamity is a Shard. Under my theory, Calamity is some of the power of a Shard, not a full Shard. Pretty sneaky, Sanderson!) 3. Is the Reckoner!Earth in the same narrative universe/dimension as he Cosmere? 4. Have we seen Calamity in another series? Again, any and all help in asking these questions would be much appreciated. I think that for right now, we have a high chance of being RAFOd, because honestly, I don't think this connection has been noticed by a lot of people. So consistency and determination will be key. Thanks all for reading.

All right. Now that we know Calamity is an Epic, presumably some all-powerful gifter whose powers don't wear off after a time, we now need to determine his (her?) identity. (Pretty sure it's a he, but I could be wrong.) To do this, I am going to throw out every single guess I have and I encourage you good people to do likewise. Calamity is a NASA astronaut. Calamity is a NASA scientist. Calamity is a science experiment gone wrong, a la many, many comic books. Calamity is a science experiment gone right. Calamity is a serial killer. Calamity is a former member of Obliteration's church. Calamity is a former fan of Regalia's. Calamity is a member of a university bursar's office (which would explain his MO—preying on peoples' worst fears as he claims to give them the key to their future, only to exact a terrible, unthinkable price that isn't even written in the fine print). Calamity is Santa Claus. Calamity is an actual cannibal. Calamity is Michael Phelps. Calamity is your least favorite politician. Calamity is every politician. Calamity is you.

If David gets Rended in Calamity, (or if his rending actually took permanent effect in Firefight), what powers/weaknesses would he have? Would he have water powers, with a fear of sharks? (As in Firefight) Would his weakness be a fear of murdering innocents? (His thoughts of killing Sourcefield after she turns normal) Will he have a cliché of not wanting his frends to die? Or will it involve his incredibly bad metaphors? Post your ideas about his powers/weaknesses below.

"The depths had claimed me as one of their own. And though I've pushed them back, I still bear their hidden scar. They insist that they will have me again." ​ So as we can see in the prologue for Calamity, David still "bears the scar" of Calamity. This probs means that David will be a full blown Epic sometime in the book. Any thoughts?​​

It has been mentioned multiple times throughout Steelheart and Mitosis that David has been able to identify Epics easily. I don't have an exact reference, but I believe that it was mentioned in the Prologue of Steelheart and in Mitosis that he had an uncanny ability to be able to identify if an individual was an Epic through "their bearing and the way they walked." However, multiple times throughout the entire series, Prof gifts to David. It has also been mentioned that David was able to figure out and master the tensors better than anyone else. This led me to consider his secondary ability: being able to use or perhaps even "steal" other Epic powers. In essence, I think that David has two powers: to identify and utilize the powers of Epics.

(Mitosis and Firefight spoilers) From Firefight, we learn that Epics like Mitosis had been flocking to Babylon Restored to seek Regalia and get a power boost. When an Epic is confronted with his/her weakness, their powers simply stop working, and they become human again. However, in Mitosis, we could see how his weakness, his own music, was directly affecting him, "melting" his clones, which we have never seen a weakness actually "killing" an Epic. Basically, my theory is that the more powerful an Epic, or if they get a power supplement, the more vulnerable or affected they will be by their weakness. Laws of equilibrium still apply to even Epics.

So...Hi. Anyway, I was wondering what calamity was. It's not a shard because it's not part of the Cosmere, so is it just the first Epic, (who is a super-powerful Gifter) or something different? In Firefight, Tia is revealed to be a rocket scientist at NASA, (Prof and his friends take a field trip there) After, Prof and his two friends are revealed to be Epics. This raises two questions. One, is this a coincidence? Two, if it's not, why isn't Tia an Epic? Or is she? Anyway, I think that NASA is connected to it somehow. Did they create Calamity? Find it in space? Open a wormhole? (Question 3: Is Calamity Darth Vader?)

I just finished rereading Firefight for the sixth time, and I realized that we never hear much about David's mother. We know that she died a year before Calamity's rise (I think), and so I was wondering if her death or her work was somehow linked to the creation of Calamity, and maybe David would find something about his link with his mother which would help him shut down Calamity or something. If Brandon was to be really cliche, he could have her come back in Calamity, and show how she faked her death and launched Calamity, and blah blah blah, but I'm pretty sure that would be too unoriginal for Brandon. Any thoughts?

So a free excerpt from Calamity came out today, showing us a rough draft of what may be the first couple of pages in the book. What did you guys think?

Pretty major Firefight spoilers, hence the topic's presence in the spoiler board. You have been warned. In Firefight we learn that Calamity, that wicked red star visible even through Nightwielder's smog, is actually an Epic. From Chapter 41: And in the same chapter, David sees it almost up close, and could have sworn he saw a pair of fiery wings. So here's my question... how is Calamity's true nature not common knowledge? We are told in the prologue to Steelheart that there was a full year between Calamity's first appearance and the dawn of the Epics. We are told in Firefight, in the passage quoted above, that it is brighter than any star but far dimmer than the moon; that puts Calamity at an apparent magnitude somewhere between -1.46 and -12.7. Therefore, there was a full year for NASA and every other astronomical organization and amateur stargazer to view a mysterious glowing object that appeared without warning and is brighter than Halley's Comet. This isn't the sort of thing people ignore; it seems to me that scientists should have learned of Calamity's true nature long before Epics began to appear. It should have become common knowledge. At the very least, David shouldn't have been nearly surprised at the revelation as he was. In summary: if Calamity hung over modern Earth for a full year and can be viewed with a telescope, why in Calamity's name doesn't everybody know what it is?

Am I the only one who's slightly entertained by Brandon's very specific percentages when it comes to how far he's worked through Calamity? If I remember correctly (which is highly unlikely) it went from 2% to 3% to something like 12% (maybe) and now it's at 19%. How do you even quantify an unfinished book down to one percent? Just something I noticed.

This was just a random thought I had in response to something elsewhere on the forums but what if Dawnslight is Calamity's sick younger brother and Regalia has been holding him hostage? It would make sense of why Calamity is willing to help her so much, giving new powers to people, upgrading existing powers, etc.